Track: Collaboration Systems and Technology
Minitrack: Measuring the Effectiveness of Collaboration Technologies
 

Collaboration technologies are seeing widespread adoption and implementation at all levels of organizations, from temporary or long-term project teams to large scale inter-organizational systems such as extranets and wide area networks. However, it is often difficult to quantify the effectiveness of such systems. With that in mind, we are looking for papers that do one or more of the following: (1) identify important dependent variables to examine when measuring the effectiveness of collaboration technologies, (2) validate instruments to measure such constructs, (3) identify and measure experimental manipulations that impact the effectiveness of collaboration technologies, and (4) study the effectiveness of collaboration technology in the field. Papers that address these issues are encouraged to submit to this minitrack.

Types of Collaboration Technologies Considered:
The focus of this minitrack is on the effectiveness of collaborative technologies, and thus is not limited to a particular form of technology. The types of collaborative technologies examined would include group support systems (GSS), knowledge management systems (KMS), video conferencing systems, wireless collaboration systems, virtual communities, Internet gaming, email systems, company intranets, scheduling systems, and collaborative markets, to name a few.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Collaboration Technologies:
We invite papers taking a variety of approaches to answering the research questions presented above. Such approaches might be described as experiments or quasi-experiments, case studies, surveys, action research, psychometrics, and ethnography. For example, a researcher may wish to conduct an experiment to test the effectiveness of various interface designs or, alternatively, a research may conduct a case study or action research initiative that examines the use of collaborative technology in an actual organization. We also welcome studies that are grounded in theory and which studies that utilize second-generation multivariate statistical techniques.


Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Donald L. Amoroso (Primary Contact)
Kennesaw State University
Computer Science and Information Systems
Kennesaw, Georgia
Email: amoroso@kennesaw.edu
 

Michael Knight
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
L. G. Wood Hall 460
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
Email: knight@uwgb.edu